Speeding Cars
by xx.just.a.contradiction.xx
Summary: KBxCW. twoshot. Katie watched for months as Charlie spiralled deeper and deeper into depression. But she can't stand it any longer. Can memories and reliving the past help Charlie remember who and what is most important to him?
1. Just Run With Me

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Part One:  
'_Just Run With Me'_

They sat together in silence.  
It was their usual and most repetitive way to spend time together, of late.  
And, in some strange and ultimately cruel way, she hated him for it.

_Here's the day you hoped would never come…_

He lay stretched out listlessly on the lounge, his long arms dangling from the cushions, the muscles on them wasting away before her eyes. His usually cheery blue eyes had taken on a sombre dullness that scared her, and as she sat meekly on the stool beside him, her knees tucked up to her chin, she felt a tear slide down her cheek. 'Charlie, what am I going to do with you?'

The quiet, hoarse question echoed uselessly in the empty house; he didn't even blink.

'Charlie… you have to stop this.'

The silence returned again, but with it brought a small flutter of ginger eyelashes, as Charlie flicked his eyes in her direction, watching her with a sullen stare.

'I can't bear to watch you like this anymore.'

There was a little cough before he spoke.  
'Then leave. Leave, Kates. Don't waste your days away watching me lie here.'

Katie frowned, her own blue eyes glistening with frustration.  
'I do it because I care about you.'

The silence became unbearable this time as the minutes stretched painfully into each other, the agony of so many words to say but too much time to fill.

Katie sighed. It was always the same.  
Every day, they said the same thing to each other, and every day, Katie would come back to the house to see him still lying where she'd left him, as sullen and impossible as ever. She might as well have just moved within him, there was that much continuity between her visits.

Charlie coughed loudly, his wasting body wracked with convulsions, and then he lay back on the couch again, in the exact same position, staring at the ceiling with stormy blue eyes.

Katie watched on as this happened, another tear escaping from her large blue orbs and sliding down her bony cheek. She herself was wasting away. She hardly ever ate, as did Charlie, and they both sat in the same state for hours at a time, rarely talking, never touching.

He began to cough again, and as she looked on, something inside her snapped. Leaping from the stool, she grabbed hold of his bony wrist and yanked him up off the lounge awkwardly.

He gave a strangled yell that ripped through his throat, his once musical voice now so rarely used that it hurt to talk. Undeterred, Katie pulled him with her through the tiny house as she snatched up keys, beanies and coats, before dressing him up accordingly and pushing him out the door.

'Where are – what the – Katie, what the fuck is going on!?'

She turned and grinned at him, a sight he hadn't seen in weeks, and slid her hand from his wrist onto his palm.

'You couldn't stay on the lounge forever, could you?'

Charlie privately disagreed with this statement, but nevertheless, he gripped her hand tightly – the first contact they'd had for as many weeks as he could think of – and followed as she walked quickly along the pavement of the city. When they reached a set of traffic lights, banked up for metres upon metres with cars, she stopped walking and turned to him, laughing.

He frowned, confused.

'Remember when we were kids and we used to dare each other to go sprinting through the traffic? And your mum used to have a coronary every time we did and nearly got arrested that one time she froze all the traffic so we wouldn't get hit?'

A small smile lit up his face before he could stop it and he chuckled.  
'We weren't allowed to see each other for a month.'

'It nearly killed me.' Katie said with a merry giggle, reaching out to tuck a stray strand of his lank ginger hair back behind his ear.

'I used to argue with mum every day,' Charlie said quietly, reaching out with a calloused hand and stroking her blushing cheek gently, 'I used to tell her that you couldn't cope without me – that there'd be no one to save you when you fell out of the tree in your garden…I used to be able to make her so guilty.'

'I never knew that.' Katie admitted, clutching his freezing hand to her cheek, 'I just knew that I missed you more than anything.'

'You have no idea how much agony I went through that summer.' He replied, his hand warming to her touch, 'But that's all a long time ago now.. lets run.'

Grinning, Katie clutched his left hand and nodded and they both sprinted out into the traffic, dodging cars every which way and laughing raucously as the hysterical voice of Mrs. Weasley seemed to reverberate in the air.

…_Don't feed me violence, just run with me  
Through rows of speeding cars…_

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	2. The ABC of Growing Up

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Part Two:  
'_The ABC of Growing Up'_

'What's the date today?'

Still panting as they sat on the park bench on the other side of Oxford Street, Katie frowned as she tried to remember. 'I don't know.. December twenty-something.'

His own brow wrinkling, Charlie sat in thought for a moment before accosting a woman who was stalking past them. 'Excuse me ma'am, do you know what the date is?'

The woman looked at him scathingly before replying.  
'You have no idea what day it is? God, are you an idiot? It's Christmas Eve.'

Both Charlie and Katie sat back on the bench in unison, unable to believe that they'd had no idea it was the day before Christmas.

'I guess we've _both_ been out of it.' Katie remarked after a moment, smiling slightly.

'I'd say so,' Charlie agreed, before saying wonderingly, 'Christmas Eve? Bloody hell.'

'Well, no use sitting here and wasting the rest of it, c'mon, I'll shout you a drink.' Katie said bracingly, standing up and extending a hand out to him, which he took.

They dawdled slowly along the row of shop-fronts, laughing every now and then as a harried muggle stumbled out of the shops, arms laden with bags.

They stumbled upon a quaint little café at the end of Oxford Street, humming busily but with a little table squished up the back of it, seemingly just for them.

Sitting down and unwrapping themselves from their layers of winter clothing, they ordered two large mugs of coffee and proceeded to fall into an awkward silence that seemed to buzz with things to say but no way in which to say them.

…_The paper cuts, the cheating lovers  
The coffee's never strong enough  
I know you think it's more than just bad luck…  
_

'I've missed you Charlie.'

Katie broke the silence awkwardly, the words seeming to tumble out of her mouth without her permission so that they punctuated the gentle hum of café talk with unusual honesty.

'It's been just like that summer all those years ago.' She plundered on bravely, the words out now and it was if she couldn't stop, 'You were so close and yet so far away… like a book on a top shelf I couldn't quite reach.'

She stopped suddenly, and without warning, the tears began to stream down her cheeks, dripping into her steaming coffee with a gentle hiss. She made no effort to stem them, but just sat there, her pale skin turning slowly pink as the tears seared her face.

'I'm sorry.' She quickly apologized after a few minutes, in which Charlie's expression hadn't changed, nor had he made any attempt to console her.

He opened his mouth quickly, as if something were about to burst out of him, but he snapped it shut again and sat there in silence, his face unmoving and showing no emotion.

Katie's face crumpled and she hid it away behind her hands, sobbing wretchedly, two months worth of restrained emotion spilling out in the warmth of the café and the cold of Charlie's manner.

Watching her, Charlie's face began to contort agonizingly, and he winced with the pain of fighting his emotions. Reaching out to touch her hands, he snatched his fingertips back just as suddenly, as a wave of guilt washed over him, drowning him in emotions he couldn't quite place.

…_Sleeping pills, no sleeping dogs lie never  
Far enough away  
Glistening in the cold sweat of guilt..._

Katie looked up at his touch, staring wonderingly at him as his blue eyes clouded over with misery and he hung his ginger head.

There was another impenetrable silence that seemed to stretch on for eternity, making Katie seriously consider just leaving him in the café until he could sort himself out… a foolish thought, as she knew in her heart he couldn't pull himself together without help.

But as she watched him, she wished that he could just say or do something… _anything…_ just as long as it was some expression of what was scratching on the inside of him, waiting to get out.

…_I've watched you slowly winding down for years  
You can't keep on like this  
Now is as bad of time as any…_

And just as she closed her eyes in a wish, a startling, amazingly loud scream ripped out of him, terrifying in its intensity.

Jumping, scared, Katie watched him in amazement as he continued to scream, completely oblivious to staring onlookers, the emotion pouring out of him in one piercing note.

Unsure of exactly what to do, Katie gripped his hand tightly as he continued to scream, shaking violently and terrified of him.

Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the scream stopped, and Charlie slumped forward onto the table, his head hitting the wooden surface with a sickening clunk.

Springing up out of her chair, Katie rushed to his side, panicking as his body began to convulse. Raising his head from the table gently, she almost sighed with relief as she realized he was crying.

Looking up at her, Charlie grimaced through his tears, before sliding from his chair and onto the ground, sobbing with such pain that other patrons of the café had to turn away from the sight.

Sinking to her knees, Katie sat down beside him, her back propped up against the table leg, and clutched him to her breast tenderly, the tears pouring once again down her own cheeks.

…_There, there, baby  
It's just text book stuff  
It's in the ABC of growing up  
Now, now, darlin'  
Oh don't kill yourself  
'Cause none of us were angels  
And you know I love you, yeah…_

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A/N: Lyrics used... 'Speeding Cars' - Imogen Heap (one part of 'Frou Frou').

This song is the most amazing song in the world.  
So bittersweet.  
Made me cry... still makes me cry whenever i listen to it.  
I suggest you somehow acquire it.

Love love. x


End file.
